Gotham City Redemption
by TheGhostOfTheLostBoys
Summary: Five years on from the attacks on Gotham City, Dick Grayson has served his city well as the Batman. But dark forces from the past lives of both Dick and Bruce threaten the city and it's heroes. (Sequel to Gotham City Apocalypse. Rated M for violence, potential blood/gore, sexual references, offensive language, and adult themes)
1. Chapter 1 - Alley

**After much deliberation, hesitation, meditation, and crucifixion, I have finally decided to continue the story I began with Gotham City Apocalypse.**

 **If you haven't read that one, then you should, otherwise this won't make anywhere near as much sense. Seriously, read it.**

 **Or don't read it. I'm not your boss.**

 **This story features a wide range of characters from DC Comics (none of which I own) and takes inspiration from storylines including Batman: The Court Of Owls; Justice League: Cry For Justice; Superman/Batman: Public Enemies; Batman And Son; the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises; and the Batman: Arkham videogame series.**

 **Enjoy, grasshoppers, and thank you for any and all support,**

 **-TheGhostOfLostBoys**

He was in his forties or fifties, his stocky but well-built frame barely hidden under his overcoat. It was going to rain, he could tell. He huddled close to his wife, her stark white pearls matching her white coat and white evening gown underneath. A night at the theatre was always wonderful, and they both enjoyed it, especially the opera.

He wasn't sure if the same applied to his son, who'd said more than once that he'd rather have gone to the movies than be dressed in his suit and taken to the Monarch Theatre. You just can't convince an eight year old of the artistic and cultural significance of the opera when you compare it to the raw celluloid appeal of _The Mask Of Zorro._

It was definitely raining now, and the car was around the corner - the other side of the block. The raindrops slished ever so gently down to the pavement in front of them, and onto them.

"Come, we can cut through here," he said, taking his wife and child by the hands and pulling them into a dark alleyway. He could tell by the look on their faces that they thought it was one hell of a bad idea.

Trashcans were scattered and toppled over, and a few rats, their fur as black as the ace of spades, gnawed on scraps before the approching footsteps sent them skittering away. The building on either side of the three were of old brick, cracked and punished by decades of abuse by the weather, and they loomed over the three like goliaths, casting dim shadows over them.

As they kept walking, the end of the alley in sight and within reach, the light was obscured, and a dark shape emerged from the shadows. A gun emerged from the shape, pointed at her heart.

"Money, jewellery. Now."

Fear sent shockwaves through their bodies, down their spines and into the ground. The boy barely understood what was happening, but he knew he was terrified. And the man knew that unless he did something soon, the shape would take him or his family. Or all of them.

The gun cocked.

The wife tightened her grip on her husband's arm.

The boy could only stare in shock.

The husband closed his eyes.

And then the whirlwind of something cutting through the air in the alleyway broke the silence, broke the tension, and the boy felt something greater than fear: hope.

A silver batarang slammed into the gun, sending it flying out of the thug's hand and falling with a clatter to the ground. The boy turned to see where it had come from, and two great wings unfurled and flew downwards from the rooftops, hurtling towards the crook. It slammed into him, sending him to the hard ground with a dull thud as the wings fell back into position; little more than a cape.

The thug made no other sound, except a brief groan of pain, before he passed out.

"Thank you for saving us," said the wife. Their savior turned and looked at them, a flicker of a smile on his cowled face.

"You're welcome," he said. "dark alleyways tend to be dangerous at night, especially in Gotham."

They knew him. The good people of Gotham looked up to him. The criminals feared him.

Underneath the mask, he was Dick Grayson. But to them, he was the Batman.

It'd been five years since he taken up the mantle of the Bat. Five years since the death of the original bearer of the title, Bruce Wayne, along with his son, Damien, who had been known as Robin.

Five years since Rās Al Ghūl had attacked and invaded Gotham, killing off all but a few of it heroes and villains - villains who proved themselves heroes, sometimes by making the ultimate sacrifice to save the city. And now, the city was saved.

Five years on, the city was recovering, growing. The economy was on the rise, the reconstruction was ahead of schedule (thanks, in part, to the involvment of Wayne-Queen International) an the city was protected by Dick and the other heroes.

Even the Justice League was again active. Many members, including Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and Atom, had fallen in battle during the invasion of Gotham. But now, lead by Supergirl, the team was stronger than ever.

Gotham was safer than ever. Crime was still present, but at an all-time low thanks to the actions of Dick and his team. And Dick knew that if Bruce could see Gotham now, he'd be proud of what his family had achieved.

For the first time in a long time, he felt worthy of the cowl. he truly believed that everything was going to be alright.

In the coming days, he would know how wrong he truly was.


	2. Chapter 2 - Jason

The alarm blared at him, taunting him from the bedside cabinet, as if it was yelling at him. _Wake the hell up, wake the hell up._

"Shut the hell up," Jason muttered, slamming his fist onto the sleep button and nearly crushing the clock under the hand attached to his muscled arm. It was nearly eleven in the morning, but that was early for him.

He slowly turned over and sat up, nearly knocking over the leaning tower of beer cans on the table and the ashtray that still let a thin trail of smoke float up tot he ceiling.

His helmet, his so-called "hood," lay abandoned on the floor, along with the pistol he held and the jacket he wore. Although, "wore" was probably an understatement. He hadn't gone out as the Red Hood in eight months. He'd sat in his apartment, smoked, drank, and occasionally shot at the yellow smiley face he'd spray-painted on the wall (whether he did it out of boredom or anger, he didn't really know).

Jason was alone, now more than ever. The only thing stopping him from going to Dick for help was his own pride.

 _Dick has other things to worry about than my bullshit._

Jason knew that wasn't true. He knew that, if he'd just pick up the damn phone and ring them up, Dick and Tim and Kate would be here in a heartbeat for him. _That's what family is for._

But something held him back. He just couldn't face them.

He slowly stood up on quivering legs, unsteady in both stance and mood. Slowly, he pushed the agony of the hangover to the back of his mind, ate leftovers for breakfast, and made his way out into the cold autumn street.

Five years on, there was still work to be done. Buildings still had to be rebuilt, and in some cases the remnants still needed to be clear away - their shattered bricks and twisted steel a bittersweet reminder of the Gotham of yesteryear. These were the kind of things Jason passed every morning (or at least, the morning he could get out of bed). He walked a well-worn path from his unassuming apartment on the corner of 52nd and Washington Avenue to the cafe at the corner of 48th and 12th. Cafe Drury, named after Drury Walker, who as Killer Moth, had saved Metropolis from nuclear destruction. He saved an entire city, but at a cost greater than Jason could forgive himself for. He blamed himself for everyone. Every hero who died, every building that fell, he felt their blood on his hands. It wasn't his fault, but five years of self-hatred doesn't go away at the spin of a dime.

Drury Walker, the villain who saved Metropolis; and Batman, the hero who brought Gotham back from the brink. But where did that leave Jason?

Everyknew knew what Drury had done, and even five years on, they honoured him. The memories of his past as a criminal were cast aside, replaced with tributes, honours, posthumous awards, and monuments. A grand collection of statues depicting the heroes who died defending the city had been erected in Gotham Park, and Killer Moth was standing proud up there, alongside Anarky, Static, Bane, Huntress, and even Jim Gordon. Jason knew that if he ever gave his life for Gotham, he didn't want that. He owed his life to them, but he didn't want to be up there, forever remembered in polished bronze. Maybe he just didn't feel he deserved it.

He turned a corner and after another few minutes of walking, the cold air howling through the streets to send crimson leaves flying all over, he reached the cafe and pushed his way through the dorr, escaping the wind.

"In a hurry, are we?" Jason turned and saw two curious emerald eyes emerge from behind a newspaper, before the paper was carefully folded up and laid down on the table beside a blueberry muffin, and Jason saw Edward Nygma looking back at him, smiling.

"Let me buy you a cup of coffee."

Four minutes later, they were having coffee together. It felt good to jason, knowing he could at least rely on Eddie to brighten his day, or at least reduce his hangover.

"It's been far too long, Jason," said Edward as his companion sipped coffee across from him. "We should do this more often."

"I've been busy, Eddie," replied Jason, glancing at the headlines on Edward's apparently forgotten newspaper.

"I'm sure you're lying. You haven't even touched your uniform in eight months, let alone gone out as the great Red Hood, protector of West Riverside."

Jason flicked him a look of disapproval. "How would you know?"

"Tim and I are Oracles, it's our job to know these things," said Edward, taking a small bite from his muffin. "I wanted to know if you were simply sitting on the bench, waiting for Coach Grayson to call you onto the field, or if you've decided to cut your losses and retire from the game."

"And what does Dick think about my... situation, hmm?"

Edward hesitated, giving his friend an uneasy glance. Emotions and human nature weren't his strong point, and he was unsure how to proceed. "He's worried about you, Jason. For him, it's not about whether you want to play, it's about wondering if you're hiding an injury."

"Since when were you so into sports, Eddie?"

"I work the night shift as Oracle, and most of the time, there isn't much happening except re-runs and Gotham Rogues games. Dick has succeeded in making the city safer than Bruce Wayne ever imagined."

"Good for him," grunted Jason, finishing his coffee and relaxing in his chair. "Why would he need me? He's got Kate running Wayne-Queen International. He's got the Justice League backing his every move, helping him whenever they can. He's even got a sidekick."

"Yes, the ever entertaining Harper Row," smiled Edward. The sixteen year old Harper had helped Bruce Wayne a few years ago against the forces of an organisation known as the Court of Owls. During the invasion, she'd hid out in the woods not far from the ruins of Wayne Manor, and came to Dick as soon as she could, asking to help him protect the weakened city. Two years later, she was known as Bluebird. It reminded Jason of the eternity ago when he'd first put on the Robin costume.

"He's even got you and Tim for an IT department. Why would he need a alchoholic vigilante running around shooting handguns and hunting bad guys?"

"You're his family, Jason," said Edward as Jason stood to leave. "Family sticks together."

"Not my family." Jason turned and left, and Edward hurried to follow him down the street.

"Jason, wait," he yelled. His friend paused and turned to look at him. "I didn't follow you here just to talk about you and Dick. I have a favour to ask."

"A favour?" Jason breath blew from his mouth, the biting cold air making it show up like smoke against the stark blue sky. "This day keeps getting better and better."

"I've been looking in Lex Luthor's recent activities," said Edward, reaching into his pocket, from which he pulled a small thumb drive. "I don't know what exactly he's doing, but he's planning omsething for Gotham. I don't like the sound of him hitting us now."

Luthor had been a threat even to the late great Superman, so Jason knew the potential risk.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Look deeper. Find me something that can confirm my theory."

"Have you told Dick about this?"

"Do you really think Dick would prioritise a half-baked feeling in my gut about this guy over the protection of the rest of Gotham?"

"You and I both know he'd do just that, Eddie."

"Exactly," smiled Edward. "Dick's biggest concern right now has to be the well-being of Gotham as a whole. He doesn't have the time or energy to focus on a loose possibility."

Jason gave him a sarcastic smirk as Edward started to walk away. "But I do?"

"What else have you got on your calender?"


	3. Chapter 3 - Morning

There are sensations that just feel amazing, no matter who you are or where you come from. To experience these rare moments is to experience a glimpse into the eye of complete happiness.

One such feeling is waking up late in the morning, snuggled under blankets and duvets in an endlessly comfortable bed, with the soft autumn sunlight warming your face, and knowing that you're under no obligation to move from your self-made nest, especially when it was Saturday.

This experience is made even better when the arm of a beautiful blonde is wrapped around you, her face nuzzled gently against your back.

This is how Kate Kane woke up that morning, with the love of her life, Harleen Quinzel, beside her.

"Are we going to stay here all day?" she asked, checking the bedside clock for the time (just past midday).

"Works for me. It's the weekend, you don't have to go anywhere or do anything for the company."

"We have Dick's meeting tonight."

"That's tonight," yawned Harleen, leaning over and kissing Kate on the cheek. "We've got another nine hours till then."

"What do want to do until then?" asked Kate, turning over nad looking at her love.

"I'm thinking pancakes. Or bacon. Or bacon pancakes."

These kind of moments were the kind Kate look forward to every day. And why, even though she knew how much good it was doing the city to be running Wayne-Queen, it was pure agony being away from Harleen for even a second.

"You are spectacular, Harleen Quinzel," Kate smiled at her, willing to give up every one of her remaining days for just one minute with her.

"I know, but I prefer not to brag." They laughed, and hugged, and kissed, and they both knew they were happy in each others arms.

After the invasion, Harleen had been in a bad place. There wasn't much left inside except guilt and pain. For months afterwards, she would wake up in a cold sweat, panicking and crying, the image of her friend's deaths flashing through her mind like a strobe light. She turned to drinking, then drugs, and after a while she simply turned away every attempt to help her out of the hole she'd found herself in.

Everyone except Kate.

They'd met after the invasion, when the loose fragments of the old Justice League were helping to rebuild and repair the city. Kate had seen what Harleen was going through, and endevoured to help her through it. From strangers, to friends, to lovers, until they were partners through everything the world threw at them.

Kate was the reason Harleen Quinzel was still alive, and why she became determined to let the past stay in the past. She managed to do something she hadn't done in years: move on.

That was why she refused to answer to the name Harley Quinn. It was little more than a dark reminder of who she used to be. She didn't weant to be that person anymore.

Thankfully, because of Kate, she didn't have to.

And, if all went well with what Kate had been planning for weeks now, Harleen would never have to be unhappy ever again.


	4. Chapter 4 - Cave

As far as Harper Row was concerned, her life had begun the day Gotham was invaded. Everything before that day was worth little to her. As far as she was concerned, she became Bluebird on that night, even though almost three years would go by before she earned the uniform.

Now, she was as invested in Dick's team as any of the others, and she got on well with all of them. The only exception was the mysterious "Red Hood," who, even after all this time, still hadn't met her. She didn't mind. She figured he was busy, so he didn't attend Dick's meetings.

Every week, Dick called together all his team to discuss their progress with the scum of Gotham underbelly. Dick could be described in a lot of ways, but "organised" was what came to Harper's mind first, especially that day.

As per usual, everyone (except Red Hood) was present.

Dick and Harper as Batman and Bluebird (even after all these years, she still felt a pang of stagefright when appearing next to him in his full costume); Tim Drake and Edward Nygma, the twin Oracles as tactical support for the team (Eddie was late to the meeting this morning, which struck Harper as odd, given the silver spoon up his ass); Kate Kane, otherwise known as Batwoman, alongside Harleen; and Holly Robinson, Tim's girlfriend and the former protégé of the late Selina Kyle, who had joined the team just after they defeated Rás and the League of Shadows, and now went by the name Catgirl.

Five years of fighting together had molded this team into something unstoppable, something powerful.

"Good evening, everyone." Dick's voice was powerful but not overly loud, commanding without being obtrusive and unwelcome. He fitted the role of leader perfectly. As everyone sat down around the meeting table, he stayed standing for a moment, looking over those who followed him. "Let's start with progress reports. Kate, you have the floor."

The meeting went by as casually as it could manage, though Harper was yet to learn the art of appreciating meetings. She certainly hoped to god Dick never made her a board member at Wayne-Queen. The progress was always the same anyway.

Homicide was down four percent since last meeting, drug trafficking was down eight, assault down seven, etc, etc. Nothing at these meetings came as a surprise to Harper anymore, but she sure as hell still enjoyed the fieldwork that came with the job.

Nothing about these surprised her, until Kate stood up just before the meeting was over, and cleared her throat.

"Everyone? I'd like to say something." She turned to Harleen, and smiled at her. "Harleen Quinzel, you are the most spectacular person I have ever met, and you are easily the most amazing, talentent, and beautiful person I have ever had the pleasure and honour of sharing an apartment, a bed, and a precious few months with. But now," she said, kneeling down as Harleen's face lit up, "I want to share the rest of my life with you." Harleen was barely holding back her excitment as Kate produced a small ruby ring and held it out. "Harleen Quinzel, will you-"

"Yes, yes, godfuckingdamn yes! Yes a thousand times over, Kate!" Harleen leaped into Kate's arms, and everyone clapped and grinned, even Dick.

After seeing everyone he knew, especially Kate and Harleen, go through so much pain, it felt good to see some happiness enter their lives once in a while.

As everyone else gathered around the newly engaged couple, Harper edged her way towards Edward.

"Why were you late, Eddy?"

"Is that really your concern, Miss Row?"

"Maybe it should be if you're gonna be shifty about it."

"I'm not being shifty. Who said I was being shifty? You're the shifty one."

"Y'know, saying all that stuff makes you sound even more shifty."

"Hrmm."

"Is it about Red Hood?"

"What makes you say that? Why the sudden interest in Red Hood?"

"Why are you confirming my guess that it's about him?"

"Hrmm."

"Does Dick know?"

"What do you think?"

"I figured as much. You gonna tell him?"

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him, Miss Row.."

"I get the feeling those words are gonna bite you in the ass, Eddy."

Edward sighed. "Probably. But I'm an acceptable loss."

"No, you aren'y. Neither is Red Hood. Neither is Dick."

"That's why I'm keeping this... investigation of mine as small and isolated from the rest of the team as I can manage, to avoid potential for collateral damage."

"What if your investigation turns up something that will cause collateral damage? What if, somewhere along the line, you screw up?"

"Then I won't screw up."

"Again, Eddy, those words are gonna come back and bite you."


	5. Chapter 5 - Heist

Jason's normal method for taking down criminals was to kick his ass into the dirt on the street, or kick his ass into the dirt until he told Jason where his pals were, then kick in their doors and go in guns blazing.

Driving two hours to Metropolis, hiring an airplane from a company willing to turn a blind eye to the illegal for a couple hundred bucks, then jumping out of said airplane and HALO jumping down to Luthor Tower to infiltrate Lex's personal office? That wasn't exactly his style, but Jason managed to make it work.

Now, a hundred floors up, Jason slipped quietly into the air vent on the roof, and began to crawl forwards, inch by inch. "Christ, now I know what a TV dinner feels like," he thought, cramped in the four metal walls of the shaft. He kept crawling, having a rough idea of where he was going after scoring some blueprints from a friend who owed him a few favours.

Squeezing his way around a corner, he came to a vent cover and peered down into the empty office below him.

A large statue of Lex Luthor next to the desk? Several copies of works by such authors as Sun Tzu and Karl Marx on the bookshelf? A leather chair with a back so ridiculously high it could've come from the set of a Bond film? Jason knew he'd found Luthor's office.

Slipping quietly from the vent in the roof down to the flat, jet black carpet, Jason carefully flipped a switch on the device in his hand - one of Tim Drake's latest inventions, designed to send an EMP burst through the electrical systems of security cameras, shorting them out. Jason would've prefered using duct tape to deal with cameras (he was an old fashioned, simplistic guy when it came to breaking and entering), but he wanted to keep this assignment as low key as he could.

He walked over to Lex's computer, using a specialised program on a thumb drive to break through the firewalls - another of Tim's inventions. Lex's cyber-security was high-end, so it took almost a full thirty seconds to break through, and at that rate Jason figured he had about sixty seconds to get what he needed from the hard drive and get the hell out of dodge before the guards came. LuthorCorp security officers were notorious for being armed to the teeth and trigger-happy.

As the various files were copied and unlocked, Jason flicked through them, scanning through for anything suspicious.

Jason had only a moment to see what the files contained, and in that moment, every part of his being felt something he hadn't felt in eight years - something not felt since the day he'd died.

Complete and horrifying fear.

But, he had barely a second to come to terms with this, as the LuthorCorp guards chose that moment exactly to burst in, fully armed with riot gear and firearms longer than Jason's arm.

He pulled the drive from the computer and dashed into the shadows, out of sight. Bruce had taught him well, he thought, pulling a nightstick from his belt. Any other day he'd have reached for the old reliable pistols, but he didn't feel like dropping bodies tonight. He'd done enough of that for three lifetimes.

"Checking desk," yelled one of the guards as Jason looked them over, studying them. The five of them all looked ex-military, but the leader was probably ex-special forces with the skull-shaped unit tattoo on his forearm that Jason could just make out in the dark. Tapping a button on the side of his helmet, Jason's view changed to a view of the room but tinged in green from the night-vision and heads-up display. Two of the guards had night-vision as well, but Jason would deal with them first, before they came to his side of the room. Another guy was heavily armoured, and most of them were armed with sub-machine guns, except for the leader who wielded a shotgun.

"Time to play, boys," he yelled jumping out at the nearest guard, slamming him in the face with a two footed kick. He then threw a batarang at another guard, knocking him against a wall, before punching the leader in the solar plexus before swinging the nightstick upwards between his legs. He yelped in pain and collapsed, whimpering.

The other three guards encircled him, guns raised, as one of them reached for his radio. Jason threw the nightstick in his face before switching on the EMP burst device, overloading their radios and the night-vision goggles on one of the last guards, blinding him temporarily. Jason took the chance, kicking him in the knee and punching him in the face before taking down the last regular guard.

The final man, the heavily armoured bastard, stood in front of him, and Jason realised he was at least twice Jason's height.

"Well, shit," he remarked, before throwing down a flashbang, lighting up the entire room with a blinding white flash. The guard laughed at him menacingly, unaffected.

"Very clever, asshole," he said, tapping his riot helmet. "Tactical visor - automatically shades when flashbang grenades go off. Pretty smart, right?"

Jason stood there, honestly dumbfounded, before the guard took the opportunity to punch him in the gut, winding him as he fell to the ground. The guard climbed on top of him, pressing his knees into his chest and wrapping his hands around Jason's throat, squeezing tighter and tighter.

"You kinda look like that Red Hood bastard from th' news," remarked the guard. "Maybe I'll get a raise fo' killin' ya." Jason could barely breath, and his desperate attempts to knock the guard off by punching him weren't working. He had one option, he realised.

He slid the gun from it's familer place on his belt, pressed it hard against the guard's visor, and pulled the trigger.

Jason slowly managed to stand up, but he knew there'd be more guards on their way, and finding a dead one wouldn't go well for him. He fired a few shots at the window, shattering it, but the door burst open with at least a dozen more guards behind it.

"Sorry about the mess, guys," Jason said, before jumping from the window and falling into the night.

The guards rushed to the window, perhaps hoping to see a crumpled and bleeding body on the pavement, but saw only a small black parachute open and glide to the ground.


	6. Chapter 6 - Engagement

Harper tried her hardest, but she stuck out like a sore thumb at Kate and Harleen's engagement party. She was surrounded by politicians, officials, entrepreneurs, and the entire WQI board of directors, including Oliver Queen himself and his wife Dinah.

The entire newly built Wayne Hotel ballroom was filled with fancy dresses, sharp suits, exotic delicacies, and soft classical music provided by a live band in all black tuxedos.. This was absolutely not Harper's style. She preferred sitting in to watch a slasher movie and listen to heavy metal, or go out with Dick on patrol, as opposed to standing in the corner of the room in a short black dress, not knowing anyone.

Kate and Dick were naturals, greeting every guest and striking up casual but interesting conversations with Gotham's elite as if they'd been doing it all their lives - people like John Wilkins, a self-made man with his own steel empire, or Samantha Carver, who held huge influence over WQI's board of directors.

Harper, Edward, and Harleen were less sure of themselves, and mostly stuck together, and Tim and Holly spent what seemed like an hour to Harper slow dancing.

Dick knew most of these people by heart, having grown up as Bruce's ward and being introduced to this life of luxury from the time he was ten.

"Richard Grayson, how lovely to see you!"

Dick turned, and smiled at the beautiful woman in white in front of him. "Miss Carver, how are you this evening?"

"Glad to be away from the tedium of the WQI boardroom, Richard. And please, call me Samantha."

"Gladly," he smiled. "How's business?"

"In the aftermath of the city's tragic recent events, Wayne-Queen is running very smoothly, considering the fact that the company spent years being run by a vigilante pretending to be a playboy."

"Perhaps," said Dick, smiling as ever, "people feel that maybe Wayne Enterprises was used to protect the city when Bruce was alive, even if they didn't know exactly how. Maybe it gives them hope that, in our own little ways, we can help the city like he did."

"Well, everyone does feel that you may have known more about his nighttime activities than you're letting on, Richard," said Samantha softly.

"Honestly, Bruce's business was none of mine. I was his handsome ward, nothing more."

"And I know that everyone in Gotham appreciated the willpower Bruce had to be able to inspire such hope as Batman. But from what I've heard, there's a new man under the cowl," Samantha smikred playfully. "I wonder who?"

"I wonder indeed," said Dick, with some part of him hoping for a change of topic. "Well, at least I know that, in the hands of you, the board, and the soon-to-be Mrs Kane, Bruce's business legacy will remain strong."

"Thank you, Richard, that means- Who is that?"

Dick turned, his eyes flicking to the door, and for a brief moment his hand reached for the emergency batarang in his back pocket as the newcomer walked into the room.

"Holy..." Dick, Tim, Kate, and Edward were all on opposite sides of the room, but they said the exact same thing when they saw Jason walk into the room, dressed in a leather jacket and dirty jeans with bruises and cuts across his face.

"Excuse me sir," said the man at the door when he walked in. "This is a black tie event."

Jason simply reached towards the man and gently pulled off his bowtie, sliding it around his own neck. "Happy now?"

Dick could only look on in surprise as Jason scanned the room before meeting eyes with him and walking over. "We need to talk, Dick."

"This is absolutely not the right time, Jason. This is the opposite of the right time."

"When will it be the right time? Tomorrow? Two weeks from now? I have to wonder when your secretary can fill me into your busy schedule."

"You've had all the time in the world to come to me with your problems, so I'm sure whatever this is can wait."

"No, Dick, it can't, because this is about how you and I spend our nights."

The look on Samantha's face went from shock to suprise to amusement in mere seconds throughout all this. "Samantha Carver, WQI board of directors."

"Pleasure is all mine," remarked Jason. It was clear he'd had at least one drink before coming here.

"Jason," said Dick sternly, pulling him away from Samantha and apologising to her as he left, "what the hell do you want?"

"Luthor."

Dick stopped suddenly and looked straight into Jason's eyes. "What?"

"Lex Luthor. He's-"

 _DEET-DEET-DEET_

Dick quickly pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and glanced at the screen. Jason looked around at the other members of the team, and each of them were also looking at the screens of their phones.

"There's an intruder at the cave.," explained Dick, tapping the button on his earpiece communicator. "All operatives, I'm assuming you got that message?"

 _"Loud and clear, boss,"_ aid Harper over the radio. Every else responded in agreement.

"Harper, you and Jason are coming with me, we're heading to the cave. Everyone else stay here, but keep your ears to the ground in case something else happens. Tim, Holly, I need you two ready to respond to any emergency calls."

 _"Understood."_

Dick turned to Jason. "We'll finish this later. Right now, we need to get to the cave."

"What, I can't get a glass of champagne first?"


	7. Chapter 7 - Intruder

The "Arkham" Cave, so nicknamed due to its positioning underneath the now abandoned Arkham Asylum for the Crminally Insane, was built by Bruce Wayne during his time as Batman, in case of emergency. While not originally quite as large or advanced as the cave underneath Wayne Manor, in the five years since Jason and Dick had found it during the invasion of Gotham, Dick, with the technical and engineering knowledge of Tim and Edward, had turned it into one of the most secure locations in Gotham, if not on the East Coast. The layers of security needed to gain access to the Arkham cave were phenominal, rivalling that of most nuclear missile silos.

Firstly, the initial doors at any of the three entrances into the cave were heavily disguised on the outside, and each held a thumb-print reader and retinal scanner on the reinforced titanium doors. Head down a corridor rigged with motion detectors, and you reached the elevator, which required a seven digit passcode changed every three hours as well as a second retinal scan. Within the elevator, vocal recognition from both the entering party and a secondary party within the cave or elsewhere in the city was required. Furthermore, the elevator shaft was rigged with motion detectors meaning that any attempt to manually force the elevator to move would result in the elevator shutting down, trapping the intruder inside. After that though, it was easy: just three heavily reinforced doors lined with titanium, steel, iron, lead, and kryptonite and an automated sentry turret system that could stop a raging rhino if need be.

There were also cameras and intruder alarms, just to top it all off.

So the mere fact that anyone was able to access the cave and get past all that made Dick very worried. So when he, Jason, and Harper burst through the doors into the cave and found a heavily armoured but bleeding man in an owl mask, he didn't really know how to react. But he recognised the uniform instantly: a Talon of the Court of Owls, an secret society that had almost destroyed Gotham several years ago and had killed dozens in a power play for the entire city. Bruce had barely been able to defeat them, even with all his allies working with him.

Jason drew his pistols, and Harper readied her own weapons, but the Talon simply sat there in the cave's medical bay, blood from his chest wounds spilling onto the floor and leaving a red puddle.

"I... surrender..." he managed to say, his voiced strained and weak. "I had to.. warn you... about the board members..." was all he had left to say before collapsing onto the floor.

"Well, he was easy," remarked Jason, putting down his gun. "Let's leave him to bleed out and go back to the- Dick, what are you doing?"

Dick had rushed over to the Talon, pulling away at the leather and bronze armor and pulling off his mask, revealing a pale man with an unruly head of hair and a youhtful face.

"Give me a hand here," Dick said, pulling off his suit jacket and rolling up his sleeves.

"Why? He's a bad guy," remarked Jason.

"He broke through the most advanced security system in the city to get in here," Dick replied sternly, concentrating on cleaning the open stab wounds in the chest. "Not to mention he said something about the board members, which might mean the WQI board. I want him alive so that I can find out why. Are you going to help me or not?"

Harper, pulling off her dress without caring that she was in her underwear, pulled on a medical apron and gloves and went to help. _Great,_ she thought. _I've switched from playing socialite to stripper nurse for an owl-themed knight in one hour. I can't believe I went to Gotham University for this._

An hour and a half of surgery later (during which Jason and Harper tried their best to remember their medical training and help Dick, who'd studied up recently), the others arrived, still in their suits and gowns. Harper had switched to a hoodie and jeans, Dick into his uniform, and Jason had stayed the same throughout, down to the stolen bow tie.

"What the hell happened, and why is their a Talon in here?" asked Tim, rightfully concerned.

"We don't know yet," explained Dick. "We found him here with three stab wounds to the chest, we patched him up, and now we wait. He also mentioned the WQI board members."

"Maybe they're targets?" theorised Kate.

"I don't know, but his little escapade interrupted what I had to tell Dick at the party," said Jason lighting a cigarette which Harleen snatched from his mouth and threw to the floor. "Lex Luthor is planning something big, and it's to do with the League of Assassins."

Everyone looked shocked, rightfully so.

"How do you know this?" asked Tim.

"I got a tip-off about something not being on the up-and-up with Luthor, so I went digging. Found some interesting stuff on his computer, loaded it onto this," he said, throwing the thumbdrive to Tim, who plugged it into the computer and started digging.

"A tip-off? From who, Jason?" asked Dick, stepping closer and looking into Jason's eyes.

"From-"

"It was from me, Dick," revealed Edward. "I'd been keeping an eye on what he was up to, and I was suspicious"

"So why not tell me?"

"Because it was a hunch, and we thought we could handle it on our own," said Jason. "We didn't want you getting all... 'Batman-ish' on a loose end."

"It's my job to chase up loose ends, to deal with every and any threat to Gotham. That's what we do here, as a team."

"Yeah I get it, Dick," said Jason, staring back angrily.

"No, you would get it if you took the time to be part of this team instead of spending yours days occupying yourself with vodka and self-pity," exclaimed Harleen.

"Who the hell are you to talk about self-pity, _Harley?_ You spent years being Joker's punching bag because you couldn't find anyone else, and then after Killer Moth blew himself up to save the world and be a hero, you spent another six months indecisive about whether or not to booze yourself to death-"

The sound of Kate slapping Jason upside his face echoed through the entire cave, and left a raw and fiery red handprint on his left cheek.

"If you ever speak to her like that again, I will break the no-killing rule, Jason," warned Kate. The cold look in her eyes let Jason know that she was far from bluffing.

"How can I trust you now, Jason?" said Dick, not particulalrly sad or angry, simply... confused. "You had every chance to come to me for help, and yet you... You and Edward chose to keep me out of the loop on the off chance that it was nothing to worry about?"

"Dick..." said Edward, his voice quiet and sombre, "We were just doing what we thought was best - for you and Gotham."

"It's wasn't your call to make," said Dick, pulling the thumbdrive from the computer and handing it to Edward. "If you two want to work alone, fine. Get out of my cave."


	8. Chapter 8 - Attacks

**Author's Note:**

 **Happy New Year! Sorry this chapter took a while.**

 **-TGOTLB**

Thirteen hours later, Dick and Kate sat in the long WQI board room, it's walls lined with plate glass windows to their left and paintings to their right. Every chair in the room was filled with a board member, and the discussion was, as far as Dick was concerned, boring.

 _Maybe Harper's personality is rubbing off on me._

But Dick didn't want to admit to himself what was really clouding his concentration. He didn't want to admit how much he wished last night had gone differently.

"You okay?" asked Kate quietly as John Wilkins droned on about Wayne-Queen Industrial income and many other things now set at the lowest volume in Dick's mind. "I'm worried about Eddie and Jason. They haven't checked in."

"They'll check in if they have anything, or if they feel like sharing."

"Dick," sighed Kate, "maybe you shouldn't have been so hard on them. They were trying to do the right thing, trying to protect you-"

"I didn't need protecting, I needed to be able to trust them. I can't do that now-"

"Mister Grayson?" asked Wilkins, looking down the table at them. "Am I boring the two of you with our profit margins?"

"Not at all, I was just-"

"Just talking absent mindedly to your dear friend," said Simon Stagg, another board member. Formerly the CEO of a chemical research company, Dick had had little choice but to give him a place on the board in order to help save Bruce wayne's company, despite Stagg's disreputable past. "Perhaps your concentration should be on the important things, such as the business at hand."

"Thank's for your opinion, Mr Stagg, but I was simply-"

 _DEET-DEET-DEET_

It was Eddie calling. Dick took a few seconds, before Kate nudged his arm.

"Another distraction, Grayson?" asked Stagg from across the room.

"Take the damn call, Dick." Dick stood up, excusing himself into the corridor.

 _"Dick, it's Edward. I found something."_

"How drastically important is it?"

 _"Oh, it's very important, Dick. Luthor's in bed with the League of Assassins."_

"What?"

 _"Yeah, that was my reaction. I went through the file Jason gave me, turns out Luthor's been buying up shares from S.T.A.R Labs trying to get the technology that Prometheus used when the League invaded Gotham. He's selling that tech back to the League and apparently, they're planning a big move. From what I can tell, Luthor's going to let them attack Gotham and kill off a whole lot of important people, then organise for them to be supposedly defeated by private military guys funded by his company. The assassination victims will be replaced by officials under Luthor's thumb, and all of that will put Luthor in place to get support for his presidential campaign."_

"Goddamn."

 _"Yeah, that was my reaction."_

"What about the Talon, and the board members?"

 _"Harper checked in with me a few minutes ago from the cave. He hasn't woken up yet, but maybe the Court of Owls is part of it? Maybe the board members are some of the League's targets, and they subcontracted the job to the Court?"_

"But why would this Talon run? Why run to us?"

 _"I don't know. Maybe he's managed to overcome his programming or brainwashing or whatever the Court implanted into him, and he then regained his sanity and came to us, hoping for help stopping the Court's plans... whatever those plans are."_

"Thanks, Eddie. Where are you now?"

 _"The Watchtower, with Jason. Tim and Holly are on their way here too. As far as I know, Harleen and Harper are still at the cave, watching over the Talon."_

"Keep me posted on anything else you find."

 _"Just keep in mind, Dick, that whether the Talons and the Assassins are allies or enemies, one of them is going to make a more soon, and we don't even know what's that is."_

At that very moment, Dick turned back and looked through the glass doors into the board room, as the room exploded with glaring flames and burning white light. The glass shattered into thousands of tiny, fragmented pieces, spraying the board room, and the force of the explosions pushed Kate back into the wall and forced the doors to slam open, new spiderweb cracks in the glass appearing with every new impact.

Dick slowly opened his eyes, glaring through the smoke as he stumbled back into the board room. The members seemed shaken up and covered in glass, but otherwise fine. He turned to Kate, and rushed over as he spotted the small shard of window glass imbedded in her left arm.

"Ahhhh... shit, that really fucking hurts, Dick," she said through pained gasps.

"Stay still..." he muttered, before gently pulling at the long shard until it came free, followed by a fresh trail of blood staining her jacket.

"What the hell just happened?!" yelled Stagg from across the room. Dick tried his best to ignore him. "I demand to know what the-" Stagg was cut off, and Dick turned to see a spurt of red gush from Stagg's neck, before seeing him fall face first to the floor. Behind him, barely visible in the drifting dust, was a Talon, bloody knife in hand. The Talon was fast, throwing the knife at Dick before he could even react. He was lucky to shift to one side before it imbedded itself into him. Instead, it hit the wall behind him, vibrating for a few seconds before staying still.

Four more Talons emerged out of the dust, quickly and brutally killing many of the other board members until two remained - including Samantha Carver. She stood, apparently not even slightly fazed by the explosions and assassins, a thin layer of grey on her suit, before turning to Dick and Kate, who had both stood up by this time.

"Kill them both," she said, and the Talons rushed at them, blades in hand.

Dick quickly pulled a batarang from his pocket, but they were on him before he could throw it, so he improvised, ducking under a kick and stabbing the sharp edge of the batarang into the back of his assailant's knee, before throwing punches at the others surrounding him. It was habit for him to wear the stab-proof chest piece of his costume under his civilian clothes, so when one tried stabbing the sword into his chest, Dick barely felt it as the sword's tip bounced off, before Kate elbowed the swordsman in the face, before throwing her own batarangs at the Talons as Dick hurled a handful of smoke pellets, hoping to cover their escape.

"We can't stay here! We gotta go!" Dick yelled, and Kate grabbed his wrist and they rushed for the empty window panes. The floor gave way as they jumped, and they fell, the wind rushing past their faces. Dick thanked God, Edward, and Bruce, for his gaunlets, hidden under his sleeve. The grapnel line shot out, latching itself to the nearest building, and Dick and Kate held tightly to one another as they reached the apex of their swing, before Dick released the line, and the two of them landed, bruised but otherwise okay, on a rooftop.

"We need to get back to the cave and find out what the hell is going on," said Kate."


	9. Chapter 9 - Clocktower

"What'd Dick have to say?" asked Tim as he and Holly stepped out from the elevator into the Clocktower's main computer hub, where Edward sat hunched over his keyboard, typing furiously, while Jason sat in the far corner, silent and contemplative.

"I told him everything, and he reacted the way I did, but his call got cut off at the end," muttered Edward, his focus on the code running up and down his screen. "Probably some business thing."

Holly sat down at another desk, resting her feet on the desk (much to Edward's disapproval), and turned on the TV, wondering if her show was on.

 _"-splosion at Wayne Tower, with multiple casualties reported by the firemen who entered the building to put out the small blazes caused by the explosions. The deaths have been reported to have been the majority of the Wayne-Queen International board of directors. However, due to the extensive damage to the room and the effects of the fire on the bodies found, we cannot cofirm at this time if the casualties include Kate Kane, the recently engaged CEO of Wayne-Queen, or Dick Grayson, the former ward of the company's now deceased former CEO and owner, Bruce Wayne, who was revealed several years ago to have been using the company to secretly fund his war on crime as the masked vigilante Batman, and some bystanders on the street have theorised that the attack may have been related to this, despite Bruce Wayne's death just under six years ago. This is Mike Engel, for Gotham Tonight, and we'll be with you with any new developments as soon as they come. Back to you, Vicki."_

Holly turned off the TV and turned to her teammates, who looked back with mixed looks of shock and confusion. Tim quickly pulled his phone out, trying to call Dick, unaware that in the explosion, Dick's phone had flown from his hand and through a broken window, landing in the street below. Edward tried to call Kate, and got the same result.

"What the hell do we do?" asked Holly.

"First things first, we need to contact the cave, make sure they're okay," said Edward. "With what Luthor's been planning and the Talon showing up at the cave, the attack on Wayne Tower can't have been a coincidence."

"Dick and Kate'll gotten out of there, no problem," said Tim. "But they'll want to know about any possible connection to the Court of Owls, so they'll head back to the cave and contact us when they get there."

"What about us?" Holly asked.

"I need to stay here," said Edward, turning back to the computer. "There's still something on this drive that's trying to stay hidden from me... I guess you guys should head back to the cave, meet Dick and Kate there, and try to figure out what's going on."

Jason made no move to go as Tim and Holly walked to the elevator.

"Aren't you going with them?" asked Edward, turning to him.

"Do you really think Dick's forgiven me already?"

"Fair enough," Edward said, turning back to the screen as the elevator doors opened, and a fiery blast erupted from inside. Tim and Holly were instantly thrown back, and landed hard on the steel floor, and Jason stood, raising his pistol at the smoke billowing from the open doors. A dozen shadowy shapes emerged, revealing themselves as they rushed at the group with swords raised. The masks, the swords, the armor... Tim recognised them instantly.

"It's the goddamn League of Assassins."

Jason started firing as Holly helped Tim to his feet, and Edward hid in cover behind his desk, a pistol in one hand and his laptop in the other.

"The program had a tracer in it!" he yelled over the echoing gunshots and sounds of metal against metal as Tim and Holly fought off the assassins hand-to-hand. "They knew we'd find it, and used the programming to track us here!"

"What the hell do we do?"yelled Tim as he kicked an assassin across the face.

"We can't stay here!" responded Jason, quickly running out of ammo, and realising it when a swordsman lunged at him, forcing him to revert back to old habits and sucker-punch him. "There's a few too many for us!"

"Agreed!" said Edward, typing at his computer while desperately trying to stay away from the fight. "Everyone out the window!"

Tim realised immediatly what Edward had triggered, and grabbed hold of Holly, sprinting at the large window across the room, while Jason collected Edward and started firing at the plate glass, with Edward doing his best to clear their path of any assassins.

"I hope you've got a parachute!" yelled Edward as they ran, Jason's hand wrapped tightly around his wrist.

"I hope so too!"

Tim and Holly dived through the glass, and Tim slapped the button on the harness underneath his clothes. With Holly's arms wrapped around his neck, two great metal wings shot themselves out from the harness, tearing through his suit jacket and carrying the two of them as they glided, heading for a nearby rooftop.

Jason, with Edward holding on for dear life, jumped a few seconds later, but as they clear the broken glass of the frame, Jason felt a sharp pain shoot through his left ankle and up his leg, and as the pair started to fall, Jason looked down and saw a harpoon-like barb imbedded in the back of his leg, while he felt blood filling his boots.

Downward momentum kicked in, and the pair fell hard, before Jason ankle was tugged out from underneath him, and he suddenly felt himself upsidedown, with Edward despreatly gripping his arm. The pistol which moments ago had been in his other hand was now hurtling towards the ground, his grip on the handle gone. They hung there for a moment before Jason looked up, seeing the long cable tied to the barb leading up to an assassin holding the line launcher.

Jason looked into the assassin's eyes for a brief moment, wondering if he had a knife he could throw at her, before an almightly, thunderous boom sounded from the depths of the clocktower, and a fireball erupted from every window, even shattering the huge clock face, and sending it tumbling down to the empty street below.

The line launcher was thrown from the assassin's hands as she herself was thrown from the ledge, and her slightly smoking body fell past them moments before they started falling too, their weight no longer held by anything. They freefell for exactly two seconds before Edward managed to reach his hand under his shirt, tugging on a cord. A billowy HALO parachute opened above them, just managing to catch enough air to slow their fall before they landed roughly on the pavement. Tim and Holly made their way down to them a few seconds later. Jason groaned in pain, before pulling off his cracked helmet and looking left to the paniced, hyperventilating form of Edward.

"Well, shit. I hope you paid off the lease on that place."

"We need to get to the cave," said Holly, helping Edward to his feet and Jason slowly stood up himself. "There's nothing else we can do here."

"Dick and Kate are rich, they can pay to get the mess cleaned up," said Jason. "Where'd I park the car?"


	10. Chapter 10 - Siege

The elevator doors into the cave slid open, and Dick and Kate walked slowly into the room, with Dick holding up Kate's injured form, blood having already soaked through her jacket from her shoulder wound. As Harleen rushed over to help her fiancée to the medical bay, Harper and Dick followed slowly.

"We saw the tower on the news, I thought you were dead," said Harper quietly.

"I'm guessing Edward and the others at the Clocktower have been calling every minute since then to ask if we've returned yet," said Dick, trying to forget the fight with Jason. They weren't related by blood, but they were brothers regardless, and Dick knew that the team was all Jason had.

Harper stopped short and turned to Dick, a grim look on her face. "Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"The Clocktower, it was all over the news... It got the same treatment as Wayne Tower. Explosions, people seen jumping out of windows at the top... There's been no word from Eddie, or Tim or Holly, or from Jason either."

Dick sighed in despair. Part of him believed that they could've gotten out okay, but at the same time... part of him was beyond scared for them. Tim and Jason were like family. Dickwalked a little away from Harper, then violently kicked at a pile of boxes, sending them scattering across the room.

"Dick!" yelled Harper, fianlly grabbing him by both his shoulders and looking him in the eyes. "Dick, you can't pull that shit here, not now! The League of Assassins, freakin' Lex Luthor, and the damn Court of Owls? All at the same time? We can't afford to lose focus, so stop that shit and focus on the task at hand. We need to figure out what's going on, or a lot more people will die."

"...I know... I know what's going on..." The frail armoured form of the Talon coughed, his body shaking, but his wounds no longer bleeding. Slowly, he sat up, and looked at them, his voice like gravel. "I know what the Court is planning."

Dick and Harper looked him over, and even Kate managed to look over at the bed beside hers while Harleen treated her shoulder.

"Well, go ahead," she said, wincing at Harleen sterilised her wounds.

"My name is... well, even I don't know that, to be honest. It's been a long time since I was around. I was born some time in the seventeen-hundreds, and put into a makeshift cryogenic sleep by the Court until about a week ago, when they woke me and hundreds of other Talons from past centuries. They told me that the original plan for the Night of The Owls was a failure, decimated by the work of Batman and his vigilantes. They told me that the Batman was dead and that the city was weak - that this was the perfect time to strike and take back the city."

"So why aren't you out there with the rest of your pals, killing innocents?" asked Harper.

"I'm not sure why my morality differs from the other Talons, but my best guess is some mistake with the chemicals used to place me in hibernation, which allowed me to dream, unlike the others, who sleep peacefully. I dreamed for three hundred years, and I saw visions of horrors beyond anything I had ever before imagined: Gotham, my city, burning to ashes. Piles of bleeding bodies and charred skeletons, and standing over it all, victorious in their slaughter, was the Court of Owls, holding me like a puppet on strings, controlling everything I did, every murder I commited in their name, leaving me with bloody hands.

"When I awoke, I was determined to undo the Court and prevent the coming destruction. I planned to escape the Court and warn you and your allies of the plan, but the Court found out, and those loyal to them hunted me down and did this..." he motioned to his numerous wounds, now almost healed but leaving wretched scars. "I barely escaped. After that, I found this cave, and found you, and the rest is history."

"Wait, how'd you know to find us here?" asked Kate, standing as Harley finished patching her up.

"The Court has been around since before the Batman existed. They have watched and studied him, his ways, and his allies for years. They put together the evidence and figured it out. That is why they knew to attack your company, and they analysed your covert war with the League of Assassin's during the occupation of Gotham to try and figure out where you and your forces were hiding- Oh, god. I've doomed you all," he suddenly said, a dismayed look on your face. Suddenly, a thunderous boom sounded from within the main elevator. "They're here."

The doors were flung away from their holdings and a dozen Talons dashed out from the billowing smoke. Dick and Talon, despite their injuries, pushed forwards, Talon versus Talon, blades digging through leather and glancing off bronze with showers of sparks from the friction. Harper slid under a table, collecting a riot gun from a hidden gun cabinet underneath, and emerged behind cover, firing rubber bullet into those that came closest, sending them flying back. Harley did the same, pulling an old shotgun from the armoury and blasting away. Kate did her best, her batarangs heping to hold them off a little, but soon the group was encircled, and fighting a losing battle. Dick was slashed behind the thigh, bringing him to his knee, but kept going as the Talon fighting alongside them covered his retreat.

"They heal too fast for us to fight! We can't keep doing this, we need a new plan!" yelled Kate.

"I have an idea," responded Talon, using a desk to vault himself over a horde of his former comrades towards two enormous metal tanks marked "N." Dick figured it out immediatly.

"Everyone down!" he yelled as the horde followed Talon towards the tanks, and Dick took hold of Harper's riot gun, replacing the rubber bullets with grenades. As they reached the tanks, Talon suddenly leaped to the left over a balcony, and swung down, his hands tightly gripping a pipe.

Dick fired the grenade, and the blast blew holes in both tanks, letting loose a tidal wave of steam and white liquid that enveloped the hostile Talons. Dick took hold of Harley, adn Harper to Kate, and grappled quickly upwards as the wave rushed underneath them, flooding the medical bay while they landed safely on a higher platform. Talon himself almost lost grip and fell into the abyss over which he swung, but Dick let down a grapnel line and he slowly climbed back up.

"What was that, Dick?" asked Harley, holding closely to Kate.

"Liquid nitrogen. It's how Bruce beat them last time," he responded, smiling. "Freeze the bodies, they can't regenerate, which means they can't fight."

"Which means now we've got a whole lotta frozen owlsicles down there," laughed Harper.

At that moment, the radios in each of their ears buzzed and fizzled weakly, before Jason's voice rang out through each of them. _"...Arkham base, you copy?"_

"Jason, it's Dick, we copy. I've been worried sick, man, where-"

 _"Dick, you gotta get down to Gotham Park. The rest of the Court of Owls are here, and it's bad, Dick."_

"Oh, shit."

 _"Oh shit isn't the half of it. Luthor's here too, along with his assassins, and they're going at each other's throats. A lot of people are dead, including more than a few cops and paramedics. We're doing the best we can, but we're low on ammo and time. Luthor's got some suit that's tearing us the hell apart. We need the Batman."_

"We'll be there." Dick turned to the others, who had all heard the same.

 _"Good, because you're him now, Dick,"_ said Jason. _"He's all yours."_

"We can take turns kicking his ass."


End file.
